Believing in the inviolability of the small set of rules that they have managed themselves to acquire, they condemn others from a different dialect background, or who have not had the same educational opportunities as themselves, for not following those same rules. Enthused by the Stalinesque policing metaphor, they advocate a policy of zero tolerance, to eradicate all traces of the aberrant behaviour. This extreme attitude would be condemned by most people if it were encountered in relation to such domains as gender or race, but for some reason it is tolerated in relation to language. Welcomed, even, judging by the phenomenal sales of Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
—
—David Crystal, British linguist, How Language Works, January 5, 2006
Oh, David Crystal, I love you. How fabulous to read someone—someone who knows his stuff—criticizing that nasty Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I got that thing out of the library on audiobook and couldn’t get past the first ten minutes. The writer is so smug, and so far from getting the POINT. A lot of people frame their snobbishness or bigotry or love of rules as a love of language and that really hurts my heart.
